A Royal History Special
Paul James’s long-running series reaches its conclusion with HM Queen Elizabeth II
THERE have been few more poignant photographs taken of Elizabeth II than those in February 1952 when she alighted from an aircraft and stepped on to English soil for the first time as Queen. A group of Privy Councillors, headed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, assembled at London Airport to greet their new monarch as she arrived home from Nairobi.
Each man was overawed by the dignity and composure of the small figure, dressed entirely in black. Placing duty before grief, she had clearly accepted her destiny.
When Princess Elizabeth was born, she was then third in line to the throne and not expected to succeed. Her uncle David was to become King Edward VIII and it was assumed that he would marry and have children of his own, who would push her even further from the throne.
Yet the abdication of Edward, and the early death of King George VI on 6 February, 1952, meant that
Elizabeth was now Queen. She was just twenty-five years old.
No-one could have foreseen then that Queen Elizabeth II would become our longest-reigning monarch (69 years in February 2021) and has now lived longer than any previous monarch of England (she turns 95 on April 21 this year).
Over those years, she has lived the most extraordinary life. It would be nigh on impossible to calculate how many millions of miles she has travelled, how many people she has met, or how many events she has witnessed, but it would be arguably more than any other person in history.
Early on in her reign, during a tour of the Commonwealth at the end of the Coronation year, the young Queen travelled 43,618 miles, made
102 speeches and listened to 276 more, heard the National Anthem sung at 508 events, was curtsied to 6,770 times and shook hands with 13,213 people. Some 270 more overseas tours followed across the decades, visiting more than 120 countries, the equivalent to travelling around the circumference of the earth 42 times.
The Queen made her last foreign trip in 2015 and then, with her 90th birthday approaching, decided to leave overseas tours to the younger generations of her family. Only reluctantly did she then begin to hand some of her day-to-day duties over to her children, yet she still maintains an extensive diary of official engagements that would almost certainly tire someone half her age.
On a tour of the United Kingdom to mark her Golden Jubilee, the Queen went to 70 towns and cities in 50 counties over 38 days. Ten years
later, to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the Queen visited 10 different regions of the UK in 25 days, undertaking 83 public engagements during that time. In 2019, at 93, she attended 295 official engagements.
Princess Elizabeth was born on Wednesday 21 April, 1926, the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, at 17 Bruton Street, London, the home of her maternal grandparents. She is our only monarch to have been born in a private house. It was later destroyed by German bombs during WWII, and only a simple plaque remains to mark where the Queen’s birthplace once stood.
Fewer than eight years had passed since the end of WWI, and this royal birth was a joyous event for the people. There was an insatiable appetite for photographs of the infant princess and newspapers even reported that, when the Home Secretary visited, the baby yawned!
At a month old the Princess was christened in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace and given the names of three Queens of England, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. When, as a young child, Elizabeth tried to say her own name she could only manage “Lilibet”, which she is still known as today to her family and closest friends.
On 21 August, 1930, a sister, Princess Margaret Rose, was born at Glamis Castle. The two remained close and spoke daily in person or on the telephone, wherever they happened to be in the world, until
Princess Margaret’s untimely death in February 2002.
As children they were popularly known as the “Little Princesses”, but inevitably the focus was on Elizabeth. Her face adorned stamps, her figure astride a Shetland pony was displayed at Madame Tussauds, a song was written in her honour. Everything from chocolates to hospital wards were named after her; artists painted her portrait; she posed for a sculptor, and by the time she was four a biography about her had been written.
Princess Elizabeth’s early childhood was divided between the family’s London home at 145 Piccadilly and the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. It was an idyllic time for the princesses, with acres of gardens in which to play and a whole menagerie of animals to look after.
Although Pembroke corgis featured in their lives, notably Jane and
Dookie, the family at the time owned three Labrador retrievers, a Tibetan lion-hound, a golden retriever and a black cocker spaniel. The princesses were also given a pony each, plus 15 blue budgerigars to care for. This resulted in Elizabeth’s lifelong passion for horses, dogs and birds, including racing pigeons.
Unlike today’s royal children, Princess Elizabeth did not go to school. Instead she had private lessons from a governess, Marion Crawford, with specialist subjects being taught by visiting tutors. She studied music and learned to play the piano, became fluent in French, and also had dancing and swimming lessons. Her only qualification on paper was a certificate for Life Saving.
It was through Marion Crawford that the Princesses gained a glimpse of the outside world, as she took them incognito to museums, art galleries, the theatre, the zoo, and even on buses and the London Underground. Occasionally they were recognised and had to be rescued by detectives, but largely they went unnoticed.
Once they called into the YWCA for a cup of tea and queued in line with everyone else with their trays.
Princess Elizabeth left her teapot behind and the woman behind the counter bellowed, “If you want it you must come and fetch it yourself!”
Following the abdication crisis and accession of her father, the family moved into Buckingham Palace in 1937. The Princess became Heir Presumptive and the carefree days came to an end. In addition to a standard education, the Princess was now tutored in affairs of state. Her training as Queen had begun.
On an official weekend visit to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in July 1939, the fair-haired nephew of Lord Louis Mountbatten captivated Princess Elizabeth. The eighteen-year-old Prince Philip escorted the two Princesses around the college grounds, and Princess Elizabeth watched wide-eyed when he devoured a whole plateful of shrimps at tea.
Within weeks of the visit, England was at war and the princesses were incarcerated at Windsor Castle for their safety. Philip was posted as midshipman on the convoy battleship HMS Ramillies, where Elizabeth began writing to him and sending him food parcels and socks that she had knitted.
Although there were fewer hardships for the Royals, life was nevertheless greatly restricted and they were subjected to the same food and clothes rationing as everyone else. Like many of her generation, the Queen is today very conscious of waste and goes around turning off any unnecessary lights. She also keeps scraps of paper and used envelopes for scribbling notes, and makes economies where possible. Her clothes do not adhere to fashion, so can be worn for many years, and items from buttons to hat trimmings are re-used wherever possible.
During the war, the Princesses had to make their own entertainment and became adept at jigsaw puzzles, which the Queen still enjoys. They also produced their own pantomimes at Christmas with performances in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor, for an audience of some 600 people, raising almost £900 for the Royal Household Wool Fund.
On her 16th birthday Princess Elizabeth was given her first official appointment and was made honorary Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. She was also required to register for National Service at the local Labour Exchange. Eventually she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and donned uniform as a Second
Subaltern. She was posted to the No. 1 Mechanical Transport Training Centre at Aldershot where she completed a course in driving and car maintenance, where she enthusiastically learned how to strip and service an engine. “We had sparking plugs all through dinner last night,” her mother once complained.
When the war ended, it was the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with Winston Churchill that became the focus of the VE Day celebrations. Princess Elizabeth was allowed to join the thronging crowds on the streets of London unnoticed, later declaring: “I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.”
As the world slowly recovered from the six hard years of war, in 1947
Princess Elizabeth joined her parents and sister on a highly successful tour of South Africa. Spending her twenty-first birthday in Cape Town, the Princess broadcast to the Commonwealth, making a pledge:
“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”
Having now blossomed into womanhood, her love for Prince
Philip had grown, too, and on her return from South Africa the couple became engaged. They were married at Westminster Abbey on 20 November, 1947. After a honeymoon at Broadlands and Balmoral, the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh moved into their first marital home at Windlesham Moor in Surrey.
They also spent some months in Malta when Prince Philip was with the Mediterranean Fleet. It was the closest that Princess Elizabeth ever came to being a housewife, and Maltese shopkeepers were conscious that she was slow counting out cash, not realising that she had little experience of handling money.
In the early summer of 1948, it was announced that the couple were expecting their first child. Prince Charles was born at 9.14pm on 14 November, 1948. Their second child, Princess Anne, was born two years later on 15 August, 1950, followed by Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.
Although these should have been carefree times for the young couple, the health of King George VI began to give cause for concern. In 1951 he underwent a lung operation and Elizabeth and Philip moved into Clarence House to be close to Buckingham Palace. That year, the Princess deputised for her father at Trooping the Colour and began to take on an increasing number of official engagements.
As the King’s health appeared to improve, Elizabeth and Philip undertook an official tour of Canada and the United States in October
1951, and on 31 January, 1952, set off for another royal tour of East Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Far away in Kenya, Princess Elizabeth was watching wildlife in the African Bush at the moment her father died, unaware that she was now Queen, and almost certainly sitting in a tree at the moment of her accession.
At 2.45 pm local time, 11.45 am in Britain, the Duke of Edinburgh broke the news to his young wife. News she bore with typical courage and calmness. When she was later asked what name she would choose as Queen, she replied, “My own name – what else?” She cancelled the remainder of the tour and returned immediately to England.
That year, in her first Christmas broadcast, the young Queen asked that her people would pray for God to grant her wisdom and strength, and renewed her promise to faithfully serve Him, and us, all the days of her life. On 2 June, 1953, she was crowned in Westminster Abbey, the first Coronation to be televised live. The reign of the second Queen Elizabeth had well and truly begun.
Her reign is now unparalleled in English history. No other period has witnessed such a diversity of events, seen so many technological, scientific and medical advances, or made the breakthroughs in the field of communication. What is most remarkable is that the Queen has managed to uphold the ancient traditions of monarchy while being at the forefront of our modern world.
From the first man on the moon to the first doctor to perform a human heart transplant, there are few
pioneers that she has not met. She has witnessed industrial and technological developments at first hand on regular tours of factories and laboratories.
As Head of the Commonwealth she is constantly in touch with world leaders. As Defender of the Faith she is fully aware of all church situations. Her long involvement with the Services ensures that her finger is on the pulse of military matters. Her many charitable patronages keep her informed about a wide range of human concerns and conditions.
She has met regularly with the 14 Prime Ministers of her reign, from Winston Churchill to Boris Johnson, and is more experienced in government than many politicians.
Above all, no other monarch has been more accessible. A full diary of official engagements enables her to meet as many people as possible, from all walks of life, not just the great and the good. In 1958 she abolished the stuffy presentation of debutantes at court, and instituted informal lunches that allow her to meet a wider range of people from vastly different backgrounds.
She entertains nearly 50,000 commendable people at a series of garden parties each summer and holds numerous receptions throughout the year for a variety of good causes.
The Queen may never have given a television interview as such, but she has given regular access to the cameras when she feels that a documentary might offer a greater understanding of the monarch’s day to day life and work.
One of the most engaging was The Queen’s Green Planet (ITV, 2018) when she was filmed in conversation with Sir David Attenborough as they walked around the garden of Buckingham Palace. The programme highlighted The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy project, which aimed to plant forests in 53 countries to help combat climate change.
To mark the 65th anniversary of her Coronation in 2018, the Queen was also filmed as part of a BBC documentary chatting about her memories of that eventful day and was reunited with her two crowns.
The annual Christmas Day broadcast brings the Queen directly into millions of homes throughout the Commonwealth, and she fully appreciates the importance of the media and communications. In more serious times, the Queen has made significant broadcasts to the nation, such as during the Gulf War of 1991 and after the death of Princess Diana in 1997. During the COVID-19 pandemic, three-quarters of the UK’s viewers tuned in to watch the Queen’s inspirational address, offering thanks, encouragement and support.
“I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,” she said. “And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
On the 75th Anniversary of VE Day in May 2020, the Queen broadcast to the nation at 9pm, the exact time that her father had broadcast to the nation in 1945. “Never give up, never despair,” she encouraged as the country was still facing its battle with COVID-19.
“Today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and our doorsteps. But our streets are not empty; they are filled with the love and the care that we have for each other. And when I look at our country today, and see what we are willing to do to protect and support one another, I say with pride that we are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise and admire.”
On a lighter note, the Queen was featured in a short James Bond film for the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony when she made a spectacular entrance, apparently parachuting into the stadium from a helicopter. The Queen received a standing ovation from the spectators and universal praise from across the globe for her humour and willingness to surprise. She had even kept the filming secret from her own family.
The Queen is not, however, a natural performer. On a visit to South Africa in November 1999 she met nine young prize-winners of an essay competition. Having organised the group into a semi-circle, she confessed, “This is one of the worst parts of being Queen, having to pose for photographs.”
Following the death of Princess Diana in 1997 there were attempts to make the monarch appear less remote.
The Queen looked uneasy as she emerged from her car outside a hamburger bar in Ellesmere Port and toured shops selling trainers and kitchenware. She appeared even more uncomfortable in a stage-managed photo shoot, sitting at a table taking tea in a small Glasgow flat.
The Queen’s daily work has always brought her into contact with people from all areas of life, and such clumsy attempts to portray her in “ordinary” situations were unnecessary. The experiment failed, and instead photographers were allowed greater access to simply portray the Queen being herself.
Photographers are now permitted to mingle with guests at functions and in our newspapers today we see far more pictures of the Queen laughing than we have probably ever done before. Instead of stiffly posed photographs, we have seen the Queen chatting happily with a pink-haired female rock singer at a reception and doubled up with laughter when a parade by the Grenadier Guards was disrupted by a swarm of bees in
April 2003.
On a visit to Canada in October 2002 the Queen awarded a former champion cyclist, Louis Garneau, the Order of Canada in the grounds of Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Mr Garneau then asked if he could have a photograph taken and the Queen replied, “No problem.” He put an arm around Her Majesty’s shoulder and the monarch posed with a broad smile as his wife took a snap.
Although the Queen was criticised in the days following Princess Diana’s death because of her decision to remain in Scotland rather than return to London, her natural instinct had been to stay and comfort her grieving grandchildren whose mother had just died. She later said that there were lessons to be learned and, although the Queen will never attempt to emulate the late Princess’s style, there has been a greater public display of emotion in recent years.
On 7 Nov, 2002, tears streamed down the Queen’s face during the minute’s silence at a remembrance service at Westminster Abbey, having just planted a small wooden cross bearing a scarlet poppy in the Field of Remembrance. It was the first time she had attended the ceremony, which the late Queen Mother had performed annually for more than half a century, and the Queen felt the loss of her mother that year very deeply. The public’s hearts went out to the Queen that day in her grief.
Because her face is so familiar to us, we all feel as if we know the Queen personally. We see her daily on our money and stamps. Her regularly updated figure at Madame Tussauds is one of the most popular exhibits seen by thousands of tourists daily. She has sat for over 150 paintings during her reign, the most famous of which must be Pietro Annigoni’s famous 1955 portrait of her wearing the blue robes of the Order of the Garter, which now hangs in the Fishmongers’ Hall in London.
Yet, when you meet her in the flesh, she can be disarmingly direct. On a visit to Italy in October 2000, her final engagement was a visit to the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Standing before one of the world’s great paintings, Leonardo’s recently restored Last Supper, the Queen put on her glasses and asked: “Now, where’s Judas?”
The Queen has had a long association with many organisations throughout Britain, some for more than 70 years. She has been a member of the Women’s Institute since 1943 and attends a meeting most years at West Newton near Sandringham, often handing out cakes during tea. The list of her patronages runs to several pages.
In fulfilling her duties, the Queen also provides employment for many hundreds of people and likes to think of them as one big family. Below stairs the staff often refer to their boss affectionately as “Mother” because of her concern for their welfare. Nothing in the royal household escapes her, and when a footman was rushed to hospital the Queen sent him a basket of fruit. The accompanying card in her own hand said “from Mother”.
As well as giving all her staff gifts at Christmas, each also receives a pudding. When it became publicly known in 1999 that the Queen had ordered 1,411 Christmas puddings from a well-known supermarket, within hours the shelves were empty. A Buckingham Palace official revealed that it was not a case of the Queen being thrifty, but that she had been enthusiastic about the taste.
Many of the Queen’s official engagements centre on centenaries and anniversaries, and her attendance is always the highlight of any event. In 2011 she made a state visit to the Republic of Ireland, the first visit of a reigning British monarch to that area for 100 years, which was widely praised, and led to a two-day visit to Northern Ireland in 2012.
The Queen attended Protestant and Roman Catholic church services, meeting with leaders from both sides of the religious divide. During the visit she shook hands with Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, a former member of the IRA. It was a meeting that would once have been unthinkable, the IRA having assassinated the Queen’s cousin Earl Mountbatten in 1979, but the simple handshake was seen as an act of reconciliation.
On more than one occasion the Queen has made the point that hers is a job for life. She enjoys the tradition and continuity of her role and has rarely failed to keep an appointment. When she caught chickenpox in 1971 she was reluctantly forced to cancel her public engagements.
“It seems a ridiculous disease to catch, especially when it isn’t even from one’s own children!” she wrote to Prime Minister Edward Heath.
“The doctors say that I have had chickenpox quite mildly for a grownup – but it is not much consolation when one is covered in spots!”
When she tore the cartilage in her right knee on a private visit to Newmarket, the Queen spent three days at the King Edward VII Hospital, London, in January 2003, and had keyhole surgery. But she was soon back fulfilling official duties and even dealt with government papers from her hospital bed.
From a very early age, Queen Elizabeth II’s life has been dominated by a sense of duty to her country. She has been there in times of triumph, and she has also supported the nation in times of disaster. Few will forget her poignant visits to Aberfan in
1966 and Dunblane in 1996. In 2017 she appeared close to tears when meeting with survivors of the
Grenfell Tower fire.
At a service for those killed in the 2001 World Trade Centre atrocity in America, it was the well-chosen words of the Queen of England that touched so many hearts: “Grief is the price we pay for love.”
The life of Queen Elizabeth II has been filled with extraordinary contrasts. On the one hand she has her various obligations as monarch, as Head of State, as Head of the Commonwealth, and as Defender of the Faith. On the other she has responsibilities and commitments as a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and must reconcile herself between the two.
“We’re not expected to be human,” the late Queen Mother once said, revealingly describing royal life as
“an intolerable honour”. It is a life where duty must always take precedence, where standards must be forever maintained. Times may change, but the Queen tries hard to remain reassuringly the same, never giving in publicly to emotions, never letting her dignity or her poise slip.
When Prince Charles was a young boy he once pressed a sticky boiled sweet into his mother’s gloved hand just seconds before she was due to get out of the royal car and shake hands with waiting dignitaries.
Any other mother would have quickly admonished her son, but the mischievous Prince had to wait until they returned home before being scolded. A discreet change of white gloves and Her Majesty stepped serenely from the car to greet her hosts as if nothing had happened.
Although the work of the Royal Family continually evolves, the Queen has been able to achieve a balance between approachability and inscrutability. We all feel that we know her so well, yet she has retained an imposing mystique.
Mindful of the occasional need to transform, she has always fought against change simply for the sake of it and has kept as many of the old traditions as possible. The Queen has an eye to the future, but always makes a nod to the past.
When two official photographs were issued in February 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee, the observant noticed that Her Majesty was wearing exactly the same diamond collet necklace and earrings worn by Queen Victoria in her official Diamond Jubilee photograph of 1897. It was a very typical gesture.
When isolated during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the Queen was photographed speaking to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the telephone.
What stood out was that she was speaking on a dial telephone that had been installed in the 1960s. In her private apartments, old-fashioned twobar electric fires stand in the fireplaces to heat the rooms. “If something still works well, there is no need to change it,” has clearly been her motto.
At the age of twenty-one, Elizabeth publicly devoted her life, “whether it be long or short”, to her country and the Commonwealth.
In a mercifully long life, as both Princess and Queen, she has indeed sacrificed herself to duty and service, and has never broken that promise.
PAUL JAMES